Friday, January 27, 2012

"Food stamp" and "janitor" are racist words?

Crazy black Mamma says so:
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Friday accused Newt Gingrich of using racial “code words” in calling President Barack Obama the “food stamp president” and saying schools ought to hire children to do janitorial work.

The Texas congresswoman’s comments came in response to a question about remarks she made on the House floor Wednesday, when she said there are “candidates like Newt Gingrich who want to throw fuel and matches and fire to develop sort of an explosiveness in this country” and there are “underlying suggestions” to calling Obama the “food stamp president.”

“These are code words. It’s inappropriate,” Jackson Lee told MSNBC’s Martin Bashir Friday. “Let me say that the code words, as far as I’m concerned words that generate and signify race.”

“[With Gingrich] It is ‘I will use race to divide. I will call the president the food stamp president,’” she said. “Telling us that a janitor who makes $37,000 would be in a better position to give his job up so that the children of the poor in New York…can pick up a broom and work.”

Source

12 comments:

Stan B said...

When your job or career is predicated on your ability to be offended, you can find code-words in any sentence.

And by the way, the top 20 New York City School Janitors pulled in over $140,000 each in 2010. NOT $37,000. A head janitor's base salary is $92,100 in NYCPS. I'm obviously in the wrong profession!

I know facts have really very little association with Rep. Lee's thought processes, but I'm posting this for people who THINK.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Stan. I was wondering what the actual pay level was as I knew Jackson Lee would not get it right.

Thanks for the source.

Go Away Bird said...

Yes Stan B thats a good amount of money for janitors to make not a bad job at all

Anonymous said...

I would like to as Rep Lee if she thinks only blacks receives food stamps or all janitors are black?

The American said...

Growing up my parents instilled in me a work ethic.

My mother told me there were no small job, only small people!

Kee Bird said...

Very very ture annon 4:50

Anonymous said...

Here is a list of all the words that people like her think are racist code words.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

Anonymous said...

Newt (Moon- man) Gingrich has recently announced that under his presidency man will have a permanent presence on the moon.
So, I'm waiting to see how she ties the moon to race...

Anonymous said...

Stan B, c'mon son!

I despise Sheila Jackson and her race baiting and hate mongering as much as the next guy, but do you really think it is a valid comparison to use the salaries of NYC janitors when she represents a section of Texas? Do you not realize there are cost of living differences in different sections of the country?

Our side should stick to truthful, factual comments, after all, what good is having the truth on our side when we do not use it?

Anonymous said...

She's the one that's racist! She is the one that based her argument upon the notion that all janitors and food stamp recipients are black. I know that it is not true with regard to food stamps and I'm gonna guess that it's also not true in the janitorial profession.

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:02

You are correct! That is what I mean by sticking with the truth. It is a powerful argument. We do not need to use questionable comparisons when the truth is impossible to refute!

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:18,

I despise Sheila Jackson and her race baiting and hate mongering as much as the next guy, but do you really think it is a valid comparison to use the salaries of NYC janitors when she represents a section of Texas?

You raise a good point. But if we are going to be honest, it should be remembered that Jackson-Lee's comments were in regards to a response Gingrich made in a debate.

Here is that response:

No. I don’t see that.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, my daughter, Jackie, who’s sitting back there, Jackie Cushman, reminded me that her first job was at First Baptist Church in Carrollton, Georgia, doing janitorial work at 13. And she liked earning the money. She liked learning that if you worked, you got paid. She liked being in charge of her own money, and she thought it was a good start.
I had a young man in New Hampshire who walked up to me. I’ve written two newsletters now about this topic. I’ve had over 50 people write me about the jobs they got at 11, 12, 13 years of age. Ran into a young man who started a doughnut company at 11. He’s now 16. He has several restaurants that take his doughnuts. His father is thrilled that he’s 16 because he can now deliver his own doughnuts.
(LAUGHTER)
What I tried to say — and I think it’s fascinating, because Joe Klein reminded me that this started with an article he wrote 20 years ago. New York City pays their janitors an absurd amount of money because of the union. You could take one janitor and hire 30-some kids to work in the school for the price of one janitor, and those 30 kids would be a lot less likely to drop out. They would actually have money in their pocket. They’d learn to show up for work. They could do light janitorial duty. They could work in the cafeteria. They could work in the front office. They could work in the library. They’d be getting money, which is a good thing if you’re poor. Only the elites despise earning money.


So if we are going to be truthful, Jackson-Lee's comments (not Stan B's) were the ones that failed to take into account the context of the original comment.

Jackson-Lee was clearly race baiting.